Pandora.com may have to close.
I listen to music online all the time via Pandora. I like it. It has shown
me music and musicians that I didn't know. As a result, I have spent more money
on music instead of less.
Some judge or someone made a ruling or such that makes it impossible for online
radio stations to exist.
Oh well, good job out there somebody.

Scott Berkun relays
a quote from Tim O'Reilly on Journalism. What journalists do, which many bloggers have yet to learn,
is to consult multiple sources and do fact checking before blurting out a story.
But what bloggers do, which journalists have yet to learn,
is to wear their biases on their sleeve,
rather than pretending they don’t exist.
Of course bloggers have a bias.
Of course journalists have a bias.
We are people with a background, a context, and that provides a bias.
It seems at times that journalism has become the heart of the hypocrisy industry.
"We are objective," is their cry, but people who monitor the
industry always prove otherwise.
As Scott mentioned, this should be a "both and" case instead of an
"either or" case. Bloggers both check facts and have a bias.

Here is news I have been anxiously awaiting.
The really small Dell computer is coming this week.
It used to be called the "Dell E" now it is called the Inspiron 910.
I guess the "9" is because it has a 9-inch screen.
A model will be offered with the Ubuntu Linux distribution.
The "Windows tax" is $50.
There may be a model available at $299.
Where do I find one?

Innovators tend to stop innovating by age 30.
This has long been observed in the field of mathematics.
Recent studies now show it occurs in almost all fields.
People are trying to find ways to extend the years for the innovators.
My experience is that as innovators grow older, companies put them "in charge"
of innovation shops hoping that they will spur younger people to innovate.
This is the hope of multiplying their innovative-ness.
It never seems to work.
My advice is to leave innovators alone, let them innovate, and forget about
the mythical multiplicative effects.

I really like
Johanna Rothman's post about the value of an assistant for a manager.
I believe that specialization is a great practice.
Having someone specialize in being an assistant is practiced all too rarely.
Unfortunately, I have met more bad assistants than great ones.
What usually happens is the assistant starts attending meetings for
the senior manager (manager cannot come).
The assistant is an assistant, not a senior manager.
The lack of skills and knowledge show quickly,
the assistant is downgraded in the eyes of everyone else,
and then they work really hard to bypass the assistant all the time.

I like TechDirt's explanation of NBC's coverage of the Olympics.
I am frustrated by the delay in online video of events.
Instead of watching the ten minutes of action every hour in the evenings,
I have taken to looking up the results of events online.
If I am really intersted in seeing video, I wait a day, go back, and view.
None of this is pleasing.

Bruce Schneier has an excellent editorial on privacy in Wired.com.
He starts with the question "If you aren't doing anything wrong,
what do you have to hide?"
There are clever answers to this question, but they only mask the real issue.
As Schneier writes, "You watched convicted criminals, not free citizens."
Somewhere we have lost the sense of being citizens of a republic.
The invaders of privacy do not just work for the government.
They work at Google, General Motors, magazine subscription services, and so on.

Psyhological profiling on the web may be coming.
This post describes efforts in this area. It seems fairly simple:
examine the words in blog posts and compare the use of those words with
the use patterns by people in various emotional and psychological
states. Of course the potential for misuse is huge.

I find this to be an excellent post about Linux use worldwide.
Interest in Linux is highest in India, Cuba, and Russia.
Those look like places where free software is sought.
In America, California and Utah show most interest in Linux.
I am not sure how to explain that other than a relatively high interest in
high tech and software.

The earth is cooling,
but once a little trend is over, things will really get hot, or so claim some.
The models are simple, the system is complex.
When the model and the terrain don't agree, follow the terrain.

This site helps you read faster.
I think that is what it does.
You paste text into a box, specify how fast (words per minute) you want it
to go, and then the words flash through.
I could use this as a trainer and I could use it as something to make
myself concentrate while reading.
Both uses would speed my reading.
Maybe there are other uses as well.

This post disturbs me. The subject is cameras at traffic lights and the duration of the yellow light.
First, study and study shows that cameras at traffic lights - they are
present to catch red-light violators, cut down on violations, and
increase public safety - are actually a hidden tax. They increase the
number of accidents which causes auto insurance rates to rise. Second,
one way to increase public safety is with the length of time the yellow
light is on. Cities have been caught shortening the length of the
yellow light below allowed limits. That causes red light violations
which increases revenues from traffic tickets. This is simply awful.